


when the knives come out

by WelcomeToTheBadlands



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, Ben Solo is a Mess, Ben Solo is a dick but also just awkward and has a crush on Rey, But also not, But also with some creative liberties to make it more accurate to Reylo, Donuts, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Humor, Inspired by Knives Out, Knives Out (2019) Spoilers, Murder Mystery, Soft Ben Solo, Vomiting, rich people are weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22163170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelcomeToTheBadlands/pseuds/WelcomeToTheBadlands
Summary: Rey is Anakin Skywalker's nurse. The Skywalker family is really weird. Hijinks, murder mysteries, and blackmail ensued.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 37
Kudos: 95





	1. prologue

When Rey was little, she knew that she wanted more than what she had. That is what started her on her path into the medical field. She was lucky, completing her training at the top of her class and then meeting Anakin Skywalker. He was a rich old man who didn’t act like most other rich old men did, and Rey liked that.

It didn’t take long for Rey to realize why she and Anakin clicked so well. He was lonely, which was relatable. None of his family ever came around to him unless they needed something, and his wife died a long while ago. He paid her more than she felt like she should be paid when—even though she was his nurse, she was also his friend—and some of the times the things she did for him she didn’t do expecting pay.

The only person that Rey would ever see come to visit Anakin was Ben Solo, and even then when she was around working he would make himself scarce. She wasn’t sure if it was because he hated her in particular, or if he just didn’t like poor people. Most of the time, the only words they exchanged were formal greetings and Ben asking if Anakin was awake.

“Yep,” She would usually say. He would ask to come in. She would ask if he wanted some hot cocoa or something because it was almost always cold outside.

He usually answered, “I’m good, thanks.” And that would be all of the conversation that they had. He was never openly rude to her like Hux was, but still kind of standoffish. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, especially when Anakin always seemed to sing his praises. She just told herself that she wouldn’t be rude to him when Anakin seemed to find things about him that he liked.

“You know, I think you and that kid would hit it off well.”

“Really?” Rey raised her eyebrow.

“Really,” The old man would always have this bemused look on his face when Rey gave him that expression. “If he’d just have the balls to talk to you.”

“I’m not really sure if it’s a question of what balls he has,” Rey said. The two of them would play Go together sometimes at night. “I just don’t think that he likes me very much.” Anakin shook his head. “Oh, and how would you know that he would like me? Do you two talk about me when he visits?” When Anakin didn’t answer Rey took her turn.

“Trust me, Rey. I know that kid. He’s probably the one person in the family that’s the most like me.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” She said.

“I’m right, Rey. I’m always right.”

“Sure you are,”

__

When Rey woke up, she had a killer headache. It had been Anakin Skywalker’s eightieth birthday and she usually only got these types of migraines when she was super tired. Her alarm beeped incessantly and she sighed, wishing more than anything that today wasn’t going to happen. Her phone pinged three times and she turned over in her bed, picking up the cracked IPhone that Hux had condescendingly given her when he found out that she didn’t have a phone.

**_Leia:_ ** _Hey, Rey call me asap when you wake up_

**_Han:_ ** _I know you’re probably wanting to sleep last night off but you’re needed—so sorry kid_

**_Phasma:_ ** _hey babe I know that your day off is today and I’m so sorry but you really need to get off_

Rey bit the inside of her cheek and then called Leia.

Anakin Skywalker died.

__

When Ben Solo was little, it didn’t take him long to figure out that his family was weird. His grandfather was a bestselling mystery novelist who had a love of board games and investing properly, his mother had a self-care business, his sister was a gender studies major, his uncle ran his grandfather’s publishing business and basically everyone had figured out super early that Ben Solo was never going to amount to anything.

Which was okay, because at least he had money, and his father had amounted nothing either. Everyone still loved Han Solo. People pretended to love Ben. He knew for a fact as soon as he turned eight years old that nobody in the family actually liked him.

He was the type of person that wasn’t very likeable—not exactly an asshole but not exactly _not_ an asshole. He tried his best to get away from his parents and the rest of his family. He learned to invest from what Anakin taught him to do and he wrote on his own, probably not something that would ever get published, but it was a way for him to be creative and express himself when his family had stifled him for so long.

Anakin was probably the only person that would ever put up with him, too. Ben started going over more as soon as he moved out, but he didn’t come over so much because he thought that he didn’t want to become a burden of any type to his father. One memory that was vivid in his mind was when Anakin said, “I’ve seen you stare at my nurse for the past three times that you’ve been over.” Ben couldn’t help but feel mortified when he said that. “Why don’t you ask her out?”

“I—yeah no,” Anakin raised an eyebrow.

“Do you not like her?”

“She wouldn’t like me. Plus she probably already has a boyfriend—anyway since when have you ever tried to set me up? I thought that was my mother’s job.” The two of them laughed a little and kept talking, but ever since then Anakin would tell him to go after her.

He never did.

And then something happened.

There was a New Years party and Ben got really drunk but he remembered something—talking to Rey. It wasn’t really a clear memory but he was pretty sure that he said something stupid. After that, he didn’t even try to talk to her. Not even when his grandfather’s birthday rolled around.

__

Ben Solo had found out that Anakin Skywalker died at eleven in the afternoon. He didn’t go to the funeral. Spent the rest of the day drinking in the bar next to the hotel. He just felt sort of numb, knowing that a storm was coming. He really didn’t want to go to that house, but he knew that he was going to have to be there for the will reading. “Your day that bad?” The bartender, Paige Tico said.

“Yeah,”

“Who died?”

“My grandpa,” She looked taken aback for a second.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Ben shrugged. “He was old. It’s my family I really don’t want to deal with.”

“Are they all pretty pretentious?”

“You don’t even know,” She smirked.

“Well that sucks, hope you can drown your sorrows in alcohol until you have to go see them.” She went to go tend to another customer and Ben stared down the bottom of the bottle. He wished that he could too. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world for that, though.


	2. hot cocoa and rich people

“This sucks,” Hux’s voice cut through the silent funeral party like a knife. A cold chill ran through Rey was she regretted leaving her thicker coat. “Can we go in? I’m starving.”

“Will you shut up, you little twerp?” Phasma hissed at him, “Someone just died, you’re supposed to be sad.” Rey was the one who stayed the longest.

She was pretty sure that she was going to catch pneumonia if she stayed out here any longer. Sighing, she turned around, not really sure where her head was at. That’s when she saw him. Ben. He hadn’t been at the funeral, but he was here now. Staring at the grave from a distance, Rey wondered why he didn’t just come closer. She didn’t approach him, but they locked eyes. He gave her a nod of understanding. She returned the nod and turned to go to her car.

__

_“When I die,” Anakin said, Rey opened her mouth to say something but Anakin cut her off, “when I die, I’m afraid that you may be one of the only two people that mourns me.”_

_"That's not true," She said, "your family will mourn you."_

_"They'll mourn me to look acceptable to the eyes of society, they'll probably be relieved that I'm gone."_

_"Ben would mourn you,"_

_"Ben is the other one of the two people that mourned me."_

_Rey pursed her lips; she wasn't sure what to say next. "Death isn't as painful as people make it out to be." Anakin told her. Rey would like to differ. She wanted to ask Anakin how he could say that when he had written so many mystery and horror novels about the subject and not think that it's a horrifying thing._

_She didn't have to ask though, because he told her why. "When you've lived as long as I have, you see a lot of things in the world, and you learn quickly that death is not - painful for that dying, for the dead. It's painful for the people that it leaves behind." For some reason, Rey's mind immediately went to Padme. How Leia had told her when she was hired that her father had been very depressed when his wife died._

_How Anakin and her became friends within two seconds of meeting and how he didn't act like he was depressed whenever she was around. But that didn't mean that he wasn't._

_"Why are you bringing this up?" Rey asked him._

_"Because," He said, "when you get old these are the things you think about, and you often have to think about it a lot."_

_"Sounds depressing,"_

_"It really isn't, when you get to be my age, you'll find that out."_

__

Going back to that house was weird, without Anakin there. Rey didn’t feel right, stepping across the threshold. She felt unwelcome there, moreso than ever. But everyone had insisted that Rey should be there, after all they considered her family.

Rey was pretty sure that was bullshit, but she didn’t object. Rey took in a deep breath as she was about to rap her knuckles on the door when Phasma greeted her. “Oh, babe. I’m so so glad you’re here. Today’s been really really depressing. I can’t imagine how you must feel right now.” Rey didn’t know what to say, so she just gave her a weak smile and nodded.

“How are you holding up?”

“As best as I can.” She sighed. “There’s been so much drama since you’ve been away from the house.” It had been four hours since the funeral party. What could have happened in four hours to cause drama? Rey didn’t know but she really didn’t want to find out either. “Hux is spewing his stuff about how he didn’t like grandad’s political views, yet again. And I just—I want to punch him in the dick.”

Rey agreed with that, very much.

Hux was the sixteen-year-old son of Luke Skywalker, younger brother of Phasma, and he was also a nazi. But he really just liked to call it, ‘being conservative’. Rey had met conservatives though. Her immediate reaction to meeting them didn’t invoke to need to restrain oneself from punching them in the face. Phasma had a harder time restraining herself though.

Gender studies major and all.

This family was so goddamned tiring.

“Also Leia’s been crying nonstop about the fact that her shithead son isn’t coming to the house and didn’t come to the funeral.” Rey grimaced. “We’re basically just all waiting for the will reader to get up here, but it should take like, two days. So yeah—weird.”

“Weird.” Rey nodded. She hoped that no one would ask her about how she felt, or why she felt the way that she felt. Because Rey knew that she would not be able to lie about it. Her stomach felt sick just thinking about it.

“Are you okay?” Rey just shook her head no. Silence was better than telling her no. “Oh, you poor thing. Let’s go to the kitchen. I’ll make you hot cocoa.” Except Phasma didn’t know hot to make hot cocoa if it wasn’t from the packet. Rey ended up making it herself.

Oh well.

It was an excuse to not have to converse with anyone else for just a little bit. Then, she suffered through a terse exchange with Luke, Leia telling her that she was so grateful for the job that she did taking care of her father, and Hux saying something about Rey’s job wasn’t _that_ hard and how she was probably having sex with Anakin on the downlow.

“What the fuck?” Phasma turned around when Hux said that. “Fuck off, you little sociopath.” Rey rolled her eyes, hoping that she could just get this day over with. That wasn’t going to happen, though. Because after all the family was gathered and people were standing around, detectives showed up at the door.

__

_When Ben was little, he wanted to be a writer. Just like his grandfather. He loved reading mysteries and he loved when he could figure things out before they happened. His grandfather’s books were always so entertaining, and even though he was a kid and Leia told him not to read his books, he did anyway. It’s not like she was around enough to monitor what he was reading._

_Ben’s teachers would tell him that he needed to be in a creative writing class and encouraged it even. His parents insisted that he be put in sports. Han wanted to put him in creative writing, Anakin wanted to put him in creative writing, but Luke convinced Leia that sports would be more character building for Ben than creative writing would be._

_Ben rolled his eyes when Leia told him exactly why he couldn’t be in sports. Even when he was little, he knew that was such a bullshit answer. A week later, Ben told Luke that he hated him for the first time. He was eleven years old when he said, “You annoy the shit out of me.” Straight to Luke’s face. Leia blamed Han for teaching him that language._

_Han just laughed and told him that preteens were going to say that type of stuff. Ben did not participate in any of the sports that Leia wanted him to participate in. He found that he liked working out, but he did not like things that involved a team. To be fair, most of the team didn’t like him either. Ben got his schedule changed in secret, learned how to forge his mother’s signature and since creative writing was now full, he got an off period._

_He stayed after school longer, writing his own mysteries that he was proud of. He would never show anyone though. Whenever Ben tried to show people stuff he was proud about before, no one ever had time for him. No one except Anakin, who knew that he changed his schedule and forged Leia’s signature before his parents ever found out._

__

Detectives showing up should not have been a surprise to Rey. Not in the least bit. Still, her stomach sank when she saw them and she found herself wishing that she hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast that morning. It was starting to disagree with her. “I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t question either of us,” Phasma tried to ease Rey’s nerves as she watched two older men cross the threshold and then take them to one of the many study rooms in the manor. “But Anakin’s death was a suicide anyways, so it shouldn’t matter.”

“Right.” Rey said. “It shouldn’t matter.”

“You okay, sweetie?” Phasma said in a sickly-sweet voice that made Rey shiver a little on the inside. Phasma had told Rey once, a while ago, that she considered Rey a friend. But considering the fact that she had followed that up with, ‘ _I’ve never had a poor friend before’_ Rey was pretty sure that wasn’t the case. She was, however, the only person in the family that talked to Rey more than a few sentences.

So—Rey dealt with her in the best way possible. She pretended.

Luke was the first one to be called into the study.

__

Detective Kenobi was a private detective that had gained prolific profile after solving the death of a young child when the police had made it a cold case for ten years. After that, he was for hire but also worked with the police a lot. Someone had hired him to come here, although he wasn’t sure who. Detective Wexley and Detective Windu had told him the usual stuff.

Let them do all the questioning unless something catches your eye. The first person to come into the study was Luke Skywalker, someone that he hadn’t seen since he was a kid. “Do I know you?” He looked directly at Obi Wan when he asked that.

“A friend of your father’s.”

“And why are you here? Also, if you were a friend of my father’s, why weren’t you at the funeral?”

“Lived in Kentucky, had to fly to Massachusetts,” Luke accepted this and sat down.

“So, Luke.” Detective Wexley began. “What can you tell me about the night your father died?”

Luke grimaced and sighed. “It was his birthday.”

“Can you provide us with more details than that, sir?”

__

**Luke’s Testimony**

There was nothing off about the night that Anakin Skywalker died, at least not at first. It was dark outside and the smell of cigarette smoke mixed with alcohol and the buttercream cake that Rey had made herself for Anakin. The family of course insisted on the cake that they had bought for way too much instead of the cake that Rey had spent hours working on. Rey didn’t mind though. She kept to herself.

Everyone was there. Even Ben, which was saying something because he was hardly ever to see Anakin and he really didn’t care about anything. Leia, Bazine, Jyn, and Mon Motha had been there as well. They had been there until about eleven thirty, then Luke went out to have a cigarette with Han, he noticed that both Phasma and Ben left early and were arguing with each other, but he didn’t try to intervene because the two of them would fought all the time, he had a talk with his father and then went home.

__

“Did your father have any enemies or anyone that didn’t like him?”

“No, I wouldn’t say any enemies that I know of—” Obi Wan had been sitting right next to the piano and hit one of the keys, “—what, what was that?” Obi Wan just shrugged.

“Ignore him,” Detective Windu rolled his eyes. Luke did exactly that.

“Although I do have to say, Ben never really cared for Anakin. He doesn’t care about anyone really.”

A lie. Another key on the keyboard. “What was that?” Luke narrowed his eyes at him.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Skywalker. If you could please send in your sister next.” Detective Wexley asked, a slightly irritated tone to his voice.

“Sure, yeah sure.” He left without a word after that.

“Do you really have to do that every time you think someone is lying?” Windu asked.

Obi-Wan shrugged. “It’s funny.”

“Not really,” They turned back around as Leia Organa entered the room.


	3. calculation and lie

“Ah, Mrs. Organa. Please, sit.” Detective Windu told her. The woman pursed her lips as she entered the study. It didn’t take long for Obi Wan to be able to see the differences between her and her brother. Luke Skywalker had always been deemed the golden child of the family, despite the fact that he wasn’t super likable or good at anything. Leia Organa was more calculated. She scanned the room and immediately, her eyes landed on Obi Wan.

“And who are you?”

“A passive observer,” Obi Wan shrugged.

Detective Windu rolled his eyes and turned back to Leia, “We just want to question you about the events of that night?”

“Why? I don’t see the point of this. My father committed suicide.”

“I know, ma’am.” Wexley said, “but please just humor us. Take us through the events of that night.”

__

**_Leia’s Testimony_ **

****

The party was great. Everyone was there. All of the family was there, even Ben. People always liked to pretend that Ben didn’t care about anyone but himself, but Leia had to admit that Ben did have a bit of a soft spot for Anakin. Anakin always had a bit of a soft spot for Ben, too. That night, every one was happy. Anakin was turning eighty years old. Rey was there too, in a professional capacity of course, but still there. She was quiet, always quiet.

Rey was a hardworking immigrant who was adopted from South Africa by a mother and father who died in a car crash a few months after she had come over to America. She became a nurse purely through hard work and Anakin hired her on for part time.

When it was eleven thirty, the party dispersed. Rey took Anakin up for bed so that he could take his meds. Leia retired to the room under the stairs. Luke went out to go smoke on the front porch and Han went out there to talk with him before leaving.

Bazine and Jyn went up to their own room.

About twenty minutes later, Leia was woken by creaking on the stairs. Another ten minutes after that, it happened again. And then that was it.

__

“Where were your son, Hux, and Phasma in all this?”

“My son left early,” Leia said, “he got into an argument with Luke and then went to go talk to Anakin and then left.”

“Do you know what the argument was with Luke?”

“I try my best not to talk to my brother about my son, it’s the only way we keep our relationship the way that it is.”

“And what about Hux and Phasma?”

“I have no idea what happened to Hux, he basically disappeared thirty minutes into the party. Phasma went back to her dorm room to grab something, and then came back and went to bed.”

“What about Rey?”

__

**_Han_ **

****

“Rey left at midnight; I saw her leaving.”

“Do you know why Luke and Ben were fighting?”

“I have no idea,” Han said, “to be honest the two of them are at their worst when they’re around each other. Their personalities just don’t mesh well.” Obi Wan pressed a key on the piano again and Han looked ever so distracted for just a minute.

__

Rey sat out in the parlor area, her hands shaking. At some point, Jessika Pava, the house maid showed up and gave Rey a hug. “Hey, babe. Are you okay?” She had been off the night of the party, but there during some of the days since. She seemed to care about Rey more than anyone else in this family.

“I’m okay,” She said. “I’ll talk to you later if I get the chance, okay?”

“Okay, but you better. Have they talked to you yet?”

“No,” Rey shook her head. She felt like she was going to be sick. Jessika didn’t know anything about why she would be sick either. Rey must have been looking a bit dazed because Jessika beckoned for her to sit down.

“I’m going to get you some water, sweetie. It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry.”

__

_Rey had always been a nervous person, but she was really nervous the first day she had on the job. It was no one but her Anakin there at the house that day, but Rey had no idea what to expect from him at all. She wasn’t expecting someone kind._

_She didn’t expect people to be kind._

_Just courteous._

_Anakin was kind._

_Anakin was more than that. He tried to crack jokes with her when he saw that she was uneasy. Asked her about her background, and she started to move more into a comfortable routine throughout the day. She should have gone home around lunch time but Anakin told her she could help herself to the kitchen._

_Rey ended up making her and Anakin sandwiches. Anakin showed her his old collection of cassette tapes and the two of them watched Rear Window together. Rey realized that she had worked a lot of over time for a part time nursing assistant but Anakin had insisted on paying her for that time as well. Rey remembered what he said distinctly to her the first time she came in for work. “Everything is going to be alright,”_

__

“I can’t believe Ben hasn’t come yet, the will reading is tomorrow.” Rey couldn’t help but eavesdrop. “He wasn’t even at the funeral. He’s such a jackass,” Luke was openly complaining to Bazine, his late adopted brother’s widow, who was at least twenty years his junior. They had a weird dynamic. Rey tried not to judge—but it was gross to say the least.

“I know right? Like you would think that after all the years of not having a job and Anakin supporting him, he would have been there.” Bazine hissed.

“Except he did have a job,” Rey couldn’t believe that she had just muttered that under her breath. Ben had been an asshole to a majority of people that he came across, there were a lot of things that he had done that were just plain stupid, but some of the stuff that Luke said about him was so much worse than anything that he had ever actually done.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Rey said. “Just coughed.” She didn’t like confrontation either. She just left the room when she heard the detectives talking out on the back porch. She decided, rather foolishly to try and eavesdrop. They couldn’t see her through the glazed windows. Right?

Wrong.

Obi Wan rapped on the glass a minute later and Rey nearly shot out of her skin. He opened the door to the back porch, the smell of cigarette smoke and cool evening breeze coming in with him. “Ah, just the person I was lookin’ for.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude—” Except she did.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I was lookin’ for you anyway Miss—”

“It’s just Rey.”

“Just Rey,” The other two detectives were there, confused, “I thought that you would be useful in answering some questions.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger! Next chapter it will really get into it. More Ben will be featured and people will get their answer to the vomiting tag.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I was going to put Ben in more of this chapter but this chapter would have been way too long for my liking if I had put him in it. So, he WILL be in next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Rey felt like her stomach had done about five flips by the time that she had sat down. Both detectives gave her an apologetic look as Obi Wan started talking. “So, Miss Rey. You may have been wondering why it took so long to get to questioning you.” Rey didn’t say anything as he continued. “Well it’s because I believe everyone here has their extremely one sided and biased opinion about the events that went on the day that Anakin died, and at the center of it, is you.”

“What?” Rey felt like she was about to throw up.

“What I mean to say is that you have an advantage, being the person that talked to Anakin the most out of the family. I think that you can fill in any of the gaps that we have about the investigation, especially since we can’t seem to find Ben Solo. I also heard from one of the other family members about your affliction.”

“Affliction?” One of the other detectives asked, “What affliction?”

“From my understanding, you have an a—allergic reaction to lying? Is that right?”

“Yes, um. It’s been that way since I was a kid.” Shit, shit. “I puke when I lie,” This was not going to be good for her. She was suddenly very thankful that she wasn’t in front of any of the rest of the Skywalkers. “Sir, if you want my opinion on this family, I don’t think that any of them are murderers.” Rey said.

“I’m sure you don’t, and that’s fine.” He sat down across from her. “But I think you know better than anyone that these people were keeping secrets, so why don’t you tell me about that. Was Han Solo having an affair with another woman?”

“Han, an affair? No.”

“Was he embezzling money from Anakin?”

“Um,” Rey took a big gulp of air, because she knew for a fact that he was. “I don’t—know.”

__

_“There are some people that I feel like I judge too quickly, and then there’s others that I think I don’t judge quickly enough.” Anakin sighed. The two of them were sitting out on the back porch and the fall air was relaxing mixed with the tea that Rey was drinking._

_“Hm?”_

_Anakin turned his computer screen over to Rey, “Turns out that Han was one of those men that I shouldn’t have trusted as fast as I did.”_

__

She threw up in the vase that was sitting right next to her on the bench, all three detectives apologizing and Obi Wan saying that he thought she was being hyperbolic. She wiped at her lips when she was done, the gross taste of bile in her mouth. She took a piece of a gum out of her jacket pocket and put in her mouth. “So I guess we know that Han was doing something fishy with the Skywalker money. And Anakin knew about it and confronted him, so that means he’s unreliable.” Obi Wan turned to Rey and Rey really just wanted to take a nap. She really didn’t want to be there anymore. “One of the housekeepers told me that Luke and Anakin had a talk on the porch the night of the party, and Luke seemed pretty aggressive about it. Do you know what their fight was about?”

“Uh, he was planning on letting him go from his publishing company. Pushing him to do something more, he was pretty upset about that.” Rey said. It was better not to lie. She didn’t need to throw up or dry heave again.

“And what can you tell us about Ben Solo?” Rey bit her lip. “We’ve heard that he’s a bit of a troubled one. Known to fly off the handle.”

“Only when his parents or Luke was around,” Rey said, “and I don’t blame him. The way they treat him—I don’t know him any, he’s never even bothered to talk to me—but the way they talk to him. It’s like they think that he’s stupid. He loved Anakin, though. A lot. He wouldn’t do anything like that, plus he was over at least five times a month, and not because he needed money. He actually wanted to see him,”

“But you never talked to him,”

“No, I don’t exactly like socializing with people. I was always there when he came over though, Anakin and him would talk for hours and they only fought a little when I started working here.”

“When did you start working for him?”

“About two-three years ago.”

A beat of silence.

“Can I go inside now?”

Obi Wan pursed his lips, “Go ahead. We will need you in the study in about an hour though. So, get something to eat and then we will resume our questioning.”

__

**_What Really Happened_ **

****

_Anakin had told Rey his plans the night before his party. “Are you sure that you want to do this?” Rey had asked him. “You’re cutting off everyone of your family.”_

_“It’s for their own good,” Anakin reassured her, “and it will be fine. I promise you that Rey.”_

_“As long as you’re sure that this is what you want, I think you should do it.” Anakin had been talking about how he felt like he had given his children too much in life, the only one in the family that really had enough money that was her own was Leia. He wished that he had pushed his children more than what he had._

_“I wish I had been a good enough parent to raise a kid like you,” He said when she was checking his blood pressure._

_“Well, I wish I had a parent who had cared about me enough to make sure that there was food on my plate but we can’t all have what we want, now can we?”_

_“True, true.”_

_“The one thing that I was worried about was—you’re planning on cutting off Ben too?”_

_“Not entirely,” Anakin admitted, “he will get a few properties that I own besides this manor. But I think it’s time that he not be tied to the Skywalkers anymore. And not because I don’t love him, but because I think that giving him this money will keep him tied to the things that aren’t good for him.”_

_“I guess that makes sense, I just hope he sees it that way.”_

_“After we talk, I’m sure he will.” Rey had hoped that he would. After that, Rey had stayed another hour and then gone home to work on Anakin’s cake. She had gotten the recipe from one of Padme’s old recipe books that was stored away neatly in Anakin’s study, and made two practice cakes before she knew that she could get it just right. Only for it not to get eaten during the main part of the party._

_Throughout the night, Anakin confronted each family member except for Phasma and Hux, and Rey took him up around eleven. “You know, I wish that I could have a piece of the cake that you had made.” Anakin told her._

_“Yeah, I know.” Rey said. “But it wouldn’t be good for your blood pressure,”_

_“Who cares about my blood pressure? I’m eighty years old, I can do whatever I want.” He went up to his study instead of to bed. Rey sighed and went to his room to grab her medical bag before following him._

_“Really, Anakin. You’re not making this job easy for me,”_

_“Oh my, I can’t believe I’m eighty years old. God—oh my I’m so old.” Rey rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her._

_“I need to give your meds,”_

_“Oh god, do you really have to stick that shit in me? Can’t a man just get a piece of cake?”_

_“I will get you a small piece of cake, really quick but then you have to promise not to be difficult.”_

_“No promises,” Rey rolled her eyes and went back downstairs as quietly as possible, cut a small sliver of cake and brought it back up to Anakin. He ate it and then of course, was difficult again. This time, they started playing Go. The game was pretty easy, especially for Rey. It was the one thing that she could beat Anakin at. He ate his piece of cake and mumbled something about how he couldn’t understand how Rey always beat him._

_“Because I’m not playing to beat you, I’m playing to make a beautiful pattern.”_

_“Yeah, yeah.”_

_She beat him again. Because she always did._

_It seemed that from then, everything started to go downhill. Rey had set Anakin’s meds on the table and when he had lost, he knocked the Go board over as a joke. Rey rolled her eyes. “Look what you’ve done now—made a mess. Such a sore loser,” She sighed, picking up the pieces and shoving the board and coffee table to the side._

_“Now I got to give you your meds,”_

_“Yeah, yeah. Stick it in me,” He said. This was where the first mistake was made. Anakin took Morphine and Ketorlac. “You know, I can’t believe that it took me this long to become a morphine addict.”_

_“Haha, very funny.”_

_“Yes, I am very funny.” The first thing Rey gave him was Ketorolac, because that’s how she always did. 300mg. The next was the Morphine. 3mg. She had done it so many times that it had just become routine. She didn’t look at which one she was giving him. He had been talking and Rey hadn’t really been paying attention because she was so caught up in everything that she didn’t realize that she had given him the wrong thing. She nearly vomited the moment that she realized what had happened._

_“Oh my god,”_

_“What? What’s wrong?”_

_“I—I made a mistake.” Her stomach seemed to be falling down an endless pit as she told Anakin what happened. He didn’t seem to be concerned about it at all._

_“So you accidentally switched the medication, and what would happen to a person if they say, didn’t get the antidote, what would happen?” Rey went searching through her bag, that was all she could do. All she needed to do. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. Rey was freaking out._

_“Rey, listen to me. If it’s not there, it’s not there. It’s okay.”_

__

Rey did not want to be questioned. She really did not want to be questioned but she knew that it was going to happen. So, she sucked in her breath and tried not to think about what actually happened that day. Instead, she listened to what Anakin had told her to do. She told the truth, but only fragments of it, “After the party, Anakin and I went up to his study to play our nightly game of Go. Anakin wanted a piece of the cake that I had made. I only let him have a small piece so that it didn’t affect his blood pressure too much. We were playing around and the gameboard got knocked over, Jyn heard this and came up to check on us. I gave him his medicine, Ketorlac and Morphine for an injury that he had sustained before I started working for him. Then, he said that he wanted to write a little bit so I left him in his study and left around midnight.”

It was a lie.

A lie that she felt particularly bad about, but she did her best to keep herself from throwing up. Once Obi Wan let her go, she waited until she was out of sight of the detectives and then ran to the bathroom, running the sink before she threw up again in the toilet.

__

_Rey was going to cry. “It’s not okay, it’s not okay. I’m going to call you an ambulance.”_

_“How long would I have?”_

_She didn’t want to say it, “Ten minutes, fifteen minutes at the most but we have to—” She went for the landline, but Anakin unplugged it before she could. “What are you doing? We need to get you help!”_

_“Rey, listen to me. You can’t call an ambulance, and if what you’re saying is true, then there’s not much time for me. It’s okay. It’s okay. You just have to listen to me, and I’ll make sure that you get out of this okay.”_

_“Anakin—”_

_“—Rey, if it was found out what you did, your license would be revoked, and it would be extremely hard to find a job. And it would be worse for you, because you just got your citizenship. You don’t want that to happen to you, and I don’t want that to happen to you. Alright? So, just listen to me. As long as you listen to me, you’re going to be fine.”_

__

Rey wanted to go home, right now. But she knew that she couldn’t. Everyone else was staying and talking more about what was going on, preparing for the will reading that was going to happen in a couple days, and food was served. She knew that she had to eat, and she knew that if she left now, it might look suspicious to the detectives. She listened to one of the housekeepers, Kaydel talk about some life time movie with murder, and of course she started to panic.

Of course she did. Phasma noticed almost immediately when she started to have her panic attack. “Hey, hey come here.” Phasma hugged her and then took her away from the main living room and out to the fire place with Kaydel.

“Are you okay?”

Rey didn’t answer, just took in deep breaths. “Kay, show her your stash.” Kaydel went to the fireplace and went into the little drawer below the clock that was placed on top of it. There were five neatly wrapped little joints there.

“You want one? It could help—”

“No, no. I’m fine.” Rey said. “I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself,” Phasma took one of them and lit it, which Rey couldn’t believe she did, in the house. With cops so close by. _Teenagers. Jesus._ They stood there, both Phasma and Kaydel trying to console Rey for a little bit while Phasma finished her joint and put it out on the fireplace before throwing the rest in a trash can close to the fireplace. That’s when Luke came by and Phasma grabbed him. “Hey, dad.”

“Hm?”

“Tell Rey what we were talking about, earlier?”

He looked from Rey back to Phasma, who must’ve looked a little too happy. “Have you been smoking grass?”

“No—just tell her,”

He shook his head and turned back to Rey, “Listen. I know that after everything that’s happened, you’re out of a job and well. You’re part of the family now. So we want to take care of you.”

“What?”

“We want to make sure that you have enough money to get out of that shitty apartment you live in and somewhere better, that you can afford. Because you’re part of the family. We take care of family.” Rey felt like she could cry. She didn’t deserve this. She just wished that Anakin was alive. “Thank you, Luke.”

__

_“You need to leave, go out and make a scene about the fact that you’re leaving.”_

_“I can’t just—”_

_“Listen to me, Rey. Do you trust me? Trust me. Once you leave, pull off the road before the carved elephant—no after. Then you’re going to come back to the house on foot. You must make sure that you get into the house unseen. My cap and robe are in my room, come down the stairs dressed in that and make sure you are seen but not up close. Luke will think that you came down for a midnight snack and the come back up the stairs, take the cap and nightgown up and put it neatly in the dresser and then leave.”_

_“I don’t know if—”_

_“Yes, you can. You’re strong, Rey. You have to do this, for me.” Then he pushed her out of the study and shut the door._

__

Rey needed some fresh air, so she walked into the back porch area as the sun started to set, only to be scared by none other than Detective Kenobi. “Oh my goodness, you scared me.” He shrugged and lit his cigar.

“Sorry about that,” He said. “You about to leave?” She nodded yes, finding herself unable to speak.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions,”

“Okay?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing else about that night. I know that it must be painful, reliving that.” Rey nodded, because it was. More painful than anyone else could ever know. “I wanted to ask you if you would help me with the investigation.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. I think we both know that Anakin Skywalker didn’t commit suicide, and something strange here is afoot. You’re an honest person, Rey. And I don’t think that can be said for most of the people here,” Part of her just wanted to confess right now, but she was too terrified to say anything. “I’ll see you here, at eight sharp, tomorrow.”


	5. Chapter 5

Being a part of an investigation of a death that you were responsible for is a trip that Rey isn’t sure how to process. She’s trying not to think too hard about her involvement in the case when she met up with Obi Wan Kenobi and the other detectives. She introduces them to the groundskeeper, a bumbling old man who’s about a hundred years old named Carl, and they ask him about tapes. This is when Rey started to get nervous again, but she had to remind herself to keep her cool. The security tapes were on tapes that were old as balls and so was the VCR player that they played back on. So, when Obi Wan asked her to pop in the tape, Rey popped it in, glad that footage was grainy and that it started at the very beginning of the night.

“Can you skip forward?” Detective Windu asked.

“Mhm,” It was then that Rey pressed the eject button at the same time as she pressed the fast forward, getting a more explosive reaction than she hoped for. The machine made a weird noise, and then opened up, smoke coming from it.

“Oh, darn.” Carl said as he moved over. Rey took the tape out, along with one of the kitchen magnets that Carl had used to decorate his metal desk and pressed it against the tape. No one had seen her tamper with the evidence, luckily, as she pressed the magnet against the VHS tape.

“Take that for evidence,” Obi Wan told her. “Miss Rey could you take us up to the house?”

“Yes,” She said. She led the three detectives up from the back path, wishing that her jacket was a little bit closer to her. It wasn’t until they were halfway up to the house that one of the detectives asked Rey for the VHS tape, and she gave it to them, hoping that she had done enough to make sure that the tape was rendered completely useless. She tried not to look too unnerved as her eyes swooped up and down the path.

There was something that she had to look out for, and then she saw it. It had been raining recently, but not recently enough to have washed tracks away. Tracks that were leading right up towards the house. It was just then, a second after she noticed her tracks still in the mud all the way up to the house, that Obi Wan told the other two detectives to stop walking. But Rey pretended that she didn’t hear anything that was going on and walked straight through the path of the tracks that she had made earlier. “Rey, st—” He looked dismayed when he looked down at the tracks and back up at her.

“What?” She asked, pretending to be clueless.

“Nevermind,” The detective grumbled. Rey shrugged, smiling when she saw the dogs running through the yard, straight towards her. One of them barked happily as the three of them came up to eagerly await to be petted, Rey stepped back a little, letting a few of them go past her and into the mud. She saw Obi Wan grimace, but she shrugged like she had no idea why he looked upset.

__

Ben knew that he was going to have to go up to the manor soon. The will reading was coming, and if he didn’t show up for that, people would ask things. Then again, they would also make accusations about him not showing up to his grandfather’s funeral either. He wondered if Rey would tell them that he actually was there, at the funeral. Just far enough away from everyone else that shit wouldn’t start, like it inevitably did when he was anywhere near his family.

She probably would. Because even though Ben had never approached her, she was the type of person who valued the truth over other things. _Why are you thinking about her right now?_ His brain was kind of pounding, and it wasn’t from the beers. Maybe he was dehydrated or maybe he hadn’t slept in a while? He couldn’t really remember right now.

He just remembered his grandfather telling him that he should talk to her.

Ben agreed, he should talk to her. But Rey was actually doing something with her life, she was actually good at things and he couldn’t see a universe where she would be interested in talking to an asshat who’s only attractive quality was the money that he had.

The money that he would have until this will reading.

God, everything was about to be a mess wasn’t it? He would relish it a lot more if it didn’t mean that things were going to get a whole lot harder for Rey. She, of all people, didn’t deserve to be subjected to the drama that his family had tortured him with his whole life. But one thing he was sure of was that she could actually handle it. Unlike him.

__

Rey had never wanted to go back home more in her life. She was tired of being at the manor, around all these memories. She really just wanted to go home, have some hot cocoa, and try to forget every bit of trauma that she had gone through in the past week or so.

_That wasn’t going to happen though_ , she told herself, _and wishing for something to happen isn’t going to make any of this better_. The will reading was happening soon, and she was still by Obi Wan’s side. “I’ve never been to a will reading before.” She said.

“It’s really not that interesting,” He told her, “just like a reading of a tax form with a bit of an audience, that’s it.”

“Sounds thrilling,” Rey said sarcastically, the both of them were standing on the back porch again, and just then Obi Wan happened to look up. There was a piece of broken scaffolding there, leading up to a window.

“Was that there before?” Obi Wan asked her.

“Um, I don’t know.” Rey said. “It might’ve been from the storm.”

“Maybe,” He said. He looked up more. “But the scaffolding is only broken at one spot. Do you know where that window leads to? I haven’t seen it before.” Rey had no choice but to show him and the other detectives.

“This house is like a damn clueboard,” Mace Windu grumbled when Rey opened the trick wall to reveal the window outside. She couldn’t agree more with that statement. Anakin certainly had his eccentricities.

“Well, we’ll make sure to get samples later. The will reading is about to start. We should get downstairs.” Rey felt her stomach do three different somersaults. The Skywalkers had always managed to make even the most mundane things dramatic, so she had no idea how this was going to go.


	6. Chapter 6

The room was so tense and silent as Rey walked in. “What’s going on?” She asked. Luke sighed.

“Oh nothing,” He said, “just getting prepared for the oncoming storm.” Leia rolled her eyes and glared at him.

“Luke, get over yourself.” Luke and Leia started arguing but something else caught Rey’s attention. The dogs started barking outside, and that usually happened when someone was coming to the door. Rey walked up to the door, pushing it open to see who was out there.

It was Ben.

__

Ben wasn’t sure what he was expecting coming to the will reading. Maybe it was part of the petty part of him, but he wanted to see their faces when they got what was coming to them. Ben was confronted by the dogs when he pulled up, both of their aggressiveness turning to excitement when they saw him. Ben sighed, scratching one of them on the head before looking up and seeing Rey there, door open.

That anxiety that he had before came back. He didn’t know why, but it did. He walked up the porch and greeted his mother and his father curtly and brushed past both Luke and Rey. Although he did it for separate reasons.

Luke seemed to be intent on picking a fight today. Ben had this habit of blocking out half of what Luke said to him, it was more of a self-preservation technique than anything else. It was all usually the same too. About how he was good for nothing and lazy, about how of course he didn’t show up to the funeral and now he was showing up to the will reading early. “Luke,” Rey said, Ben raised an eyebrow when she spoke up, because that almost never happened, “leave him alone.”

Ben was grateful that she didn’t tell them that they had seen each other at the funeral, he didn’t need that right now. Luke opened his mouth to say something, and then promptly closed it. Ben smirked. “Why do you care so much?” Phasma asked Rey. “It’s not like he was actually there at the funeral, or like he cares about anyone else either.”

“Oh, up yours.” Ben said. That’s when the chaos began.

__

Rey really just wanted this to be over. She prayed for a reprieve and for a second, she thought that she had gotten it when the will reader coughed. Trying to get their attention. The reading was to be conducted in the study, and Rey didn’t know why she was going in there too, but Ben winked at her and had said, “Trust me. You’ll want to be there.” Rey swallowed, wanting to know why he said that to her. She didn’t ask though, just followed and smiled at Detective Kenobi.

The room was even more tense than Rey thought that it would be. She stood at the back of the room, because she didn’t want to be so close to the storm that was probably about to happen. The rules of the will reading were explained, and then an envelope was opened. “Oh,” The man said as he looked at the will reading. “This will be really easy actually.”

“Really?” Leia asked.

“Yes, uh—it’s just one page.” The man explained to them. “It seems that everything will only be left to one person.” Rey had no way of knowing what was going to happen after that. “I Anakin Skywalker, of sound mind, leave all of my funds to Rey Johnson.” Rey’s heart was beating out of her chest. She couldn’t think and she started sweating, people started shouting and someone said something about a lawyer.

And meanwhile Ben was just laughing, like he knew that was going to happen. When someone said that they still had the house, the man added that the house also belonged to her. And that’s when Rey started to stumble backwards, at the door. Because a bunch of angry Skywalkers coming at you was not a fun thing. Blood was ringing in her eyes and she was pretty sure that if she could, she would throw up. Everyone was shouting at her, and she couldn’t think. She kept apologizing because she didn’t know what was going on.

She tried to get in her car, glad for the separation between her and Ben.

She couldn’t start the engine, and she started panicking. “Open the car, Rey. Open the car. We just want to talk.”

“Are you boinking my father?”

“That isn’t helping Leia,” That’s when another car pulled up, and honked their horn. It was Ben in his car, he motioned for her to get out and move, and without thinking, she did. Running to the solace of Ben’s car as he called out to his parents.

“Oh, I think that you guys will be fine now that you’re not going to have all of this money. After all, it builds character.” After that they drove away.

__

Ben could still see that Rey was overwhelmed, and he really felt bad for her, but he didn’t know what to say. He was never really good at talking. She was shaking in the seat next to her when he asked, “Have you eaten anything yet?” Her eyes were wide and she stared at him for a minute before she cleared her throat.

“No,” She said. “No, I haven’t.”

“Well, then. Let’s change that.” He told her. Rey nodded and Ben turned. “You doing okay?”

“Why are you being nice to me?”

That stung a little, but he knew that everyone was being sort of awful to her so she was just being cautious. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I just got all of the money from your family—that can’t feel good.”

“Honestly,” Ben said, “I have enough money saved up from separate investments that I don’t really care.”

“And the house?”

“There’s a lot of bad memories there,”

“But you loved Anakin.”

“Yes I did, and I do. I mean like—never mind. Anyways, sorry for that my parents can be awful sometimes.” Rey didn’t say anything.


End file.
